1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a network tape-out system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a tape-out system of a mask tooling network for multiple supply chain.
2. Description of the Related Art
Designers of an integrated circuit (IC) use a conventional method to obtain a required mask, and they first hand over the device design data to the design service agents. The design service agents will start to design according to the device design data provided. Then the device design data that has been processed is passed to various mask suppliers to fabricate masks according to various requirements.
From the design service to the mask fabrication, the tape-out data of the conventional method that is used by the IC design agents is all transmitted and exchanged by oral information, paper data, fax data or e-mail attached files, etc. Therefore, mask data has to be inputted multiple times by hand and printed out, and there are no safety codes or signatures, etc. to protect the data during the transmission process. Moreover, the design agents are restricted to the local working hours to search and inquire about information. The manual method of processing the data exchange cannot perform automatic mask design for multiple devices. When performing multi-transmissions of various data, the conventional method cannot combine the design pattern and the mask layer into a comparison list.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a tape-out system of a mask tooling network for multi-users to improve the conventional manual method of processing the exchange data which has no safety or security protection.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a tape-out system of a mask tooling network for multi-users to resolve the problem of the conventional method that cannot combine the design pattern and the mask layers into a comparison list.
The present invention provides a tape-out system of a mask tooling network for multi-users, wherein the system comprises: an integrated circuit (IC) designer computer; a design service computer; and a mask house computer, wherein the IC designer computer, the design service computer and the mask house computer are linked by a network. A mask tooling of a product is requested by the IC designer computer, and a data of the mask tooling is transmitted to the design service computer. The mask tooling data undergoes a processing step and a summarizing step with an electronic signature carried out by the design service computer. A signal from the design service computer is transmitted to notify the mask house computer and the IC designer computer to process and summarize the mask tooling data. A signal of the electronic signature is transmitted to the design service computer after the mask house computer and the IC designer computer process the mask tooling data.
The IC designer computer, design service computer and the mask house computer of the present invention are linked together so that the mask tooling process is transmitted by a network method. Since the whole process is computerized, a manual method can be avoided to prevent errors such as missing data or incomplete data. The present invention utilizes an electronic signature as a safety procedure during the data exchanging process, so that the designer data can be protected.
Since the IC designer computer, design service computer and the mask house computer are linked together by the network, the system is not limited to local working hours. Users can connect to the network and search for any related information at any time without being restricted to working hours. The whole transmission process is computerized; therefore, mask tooling of multiple devices can be completed automatically.
The present invention provides for multi-transmission of various data by computers and a network; therefore, the design pattern and the mask layers can be combined to form a comparison list.
Both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.